USS Claude V. Ricketts (DDG-5)

USS Claude V. Ricketts (DDG-5) in 1986
History
United States
Name:	Biddle DDG-5 (as launched)
Namesake:	Claude V. Ricketts
Ordered:	28 March 1957
Builder:	New York Shipbuilding Corporation
Laid down:	18 May 1959
Launched:	14 June 1960
Acquired:	2 May 1962
Commissioned:	5 May 1962
Decommissioned:	31 October 1989
Renamed:	Claude V. Ricketts (DDG-5) 28 July 1964
Struck:	1 June 1990
Fate:	Disposed of by scrapping 8 November 2002
General characteristics
Class and type:	Charles F. Adams-class destroyer
Displacement:	3,277 tons standard, 4,526 full load
Length:	437 ft (133 m)
Beam:	47 ft (14 m)
Draft:	15 ft (4.6 m)
Propulsion:	2 × Westinghouse steam turbines providing 70,000 shp (52 MW); 2 shafts 4 × Foster-Wheeler 1,275 psi (8,790 kPa) boilers
Speed:	33 knots (61 km/h)
Range:	4,500 nautical miles (8,300 km) at 20 knots (37 km/h)
Complement:	354 (24 officers, 330 enlisted)
Sensors and processing systems:	AN/SPS-39 3D air search radar AN/SPS-10 surface search radar AN/SPG-51 missile fire control radar AN/SPG-53 gunfire control radar AN/SQS-23 Sonar and the hull mounted SQQ-23 Pair Sonar for DDG-2 through 19 AN/SPS-40 Air Search Radar
Armament:	1 Mk 11 missile launcher (DDG2-14) or Mk 13 single arm missile launcher (DDG-15-24) for RIM-24 Tartar SAM system, or later the RIM-66 Standard (SM-1) and Harpoon antiship missile 2 × 5"/54 caliber Mark 42 (127 mm) gun 1 × RUR-5 ASROC Launcher 6 × 12.8 in (324 mm) ASW Torpedo Tubes (2 x Mark 32 Surface Vessel Torpedo Tubes)
Aircraft carried:	None

USS Claude V. Ricketts (DDG-5), previously Biddle and DD-955, was a Charles F. Adams-class guided missile destroyer of the United States Navy. She was the third US Naval ship named after Nicholas Biddle, one of the first five captains of the Continental Navy.

Originally to be designated as DD-955, the ship was laid down as DDG-5 by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation at Camden, New Jersey on 18 May 1959, launched on 4 June 1960 and commissioned as USS Biddle on 5 May 1962, at Philadelphia Naval Shipyard CDR Paul Roth in command. Biddle was renamed to Claude V. Ricketts on 28 July 1964 in honor of Admiral Claude V. Ricketts, who had died on 6 July 1964.

Biddle operated in the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea as part of the Second Fleet until the end of 1963. Biddle participated in naval activity near Cuba in weeks before the Cuban Missile Crisis. A Navy Expeditionary Medal was awarded for service from 19 August 1962 to 28 September 1962.Biddle made her first deployment to the Mediterranean Sea at the close of 1963 returning to Norfolk in March 1964.

From June 1964 to end of 1965 Claude V. Ricketts was part of a mixed-manning experiment for a proposed Multilateral Force (MLF). Its crew consisted of 10 officers and 164 crew from the US Navy with the remainder filled by sailors from West Germany, Italy, Greece, United Kingdom, Netherlands, and Turkey. Though the MLF never was created, Secretary of the Navy Paul Nitze stated that the project on Claude V. Ricketts was successful. The ship's crest includes the NATO insignia. A Navy Unit Commendation was awarded for the 18-month period.